It looks like Guantanamo Bay is back in the news because of a Tuesday US Appeals Court ruling that the prisoners' rights of habeas corpus don't apply if they're held outside of absolute US sovereignty like in say, I dunno, perhaps Cuba?
It doesn't make much sense now does it? Whatever happened to our sense of human rights being absolute in themselves. Aren't human rights, like those rights of legal representation and knowing the crimes you're guilty of fundamental to everyone? In the eyes of the Bush government, apparently not. Instead what they've done is to try and squirrel their ways into legality by declaring these detainees as unlawful combatants, thus outside of the need of an actual criminal charge in order to justify holding them indefinitely.
It's amazing how the Bush government just keeps on pushing forward without whim or care for the opinion of the rest of the world. What gives them the right to hold themselves above all of us? Why do they get to twist their laws to serve their purposes while trampling over the rights and freedoms of everyone else?
Related Links:
- [US] 5 Years of Gitmo
- TIME Magazine: Does the Gitmo Decision Make Sense?
- TIME Magazine: Losing Europe in the War on Terror
- TIME Magazine: Why Japan is Unhappy with the US
Photo linked from Flickr user poppy painted's photostream.
It's hard to imagine that the